Family Outing
by Black Stormraven
Summary: Star Wars Rebels. The crew of the Ghost spends some time at a carnival. Hera/Kanan, Sabine, Ezra, Zeb. Prompt requested by an anon on Tumblr.


_Alright, this is actually kinda fun. _Kanan may have complained about this place at first, but seeing how happy everyone else was (except Zeb and Chopper; they'd elected to stay behind on the _Ghost _and spend the evening being surly together) had started to rub off on him. And winning those light-up goggles in a marksmanship game hadn't dampened his mood either; he'd give them to Hera later on as a kind of gag gift. She'd probably just laugh and weld them to Chopper when she got bored.

The carnival itself wasn't too bad, if one ignored the dangers of being strapped into rides with more missing parts than working ones. The worst part was the waiting. Waiting in lines for food, for games, for the portable 'freshers, for rides. Once, they got stuck in a line that literally led nowhere; that had irritated Hera, who didn't like wasting time.

Now they were at the front of another line, Sabine and Ezra ahead of Kanan and Hera. Sabine was clutching an oversized astromech droid plush that was nearly half as big as she was. Kanan noted how she was holding it both as if someone was going to grab it from her, and using it as a shield against Ezra's transparent attempts to flirt with her.

"Yo, operator guy!" Sabine shouted suddenly, cutting the younger boy off mid-sentence. "You ever gonna let someone else on, or are you just gonna let the same ones stay on until the sun goes supernova?"

"Sabine!" Hera hissed, then raised her voice. "But now that it's out there, who do we have to bribe to get a turn ourselves?"

The operator, a sour-looking Bothan whose posture and expression was at complete odds with the jovial atmosphere around him, just glared at them. A moment later, he halted the ride, an enormous rotating wheel with swinging baskets riveted in the durasteel frame. A young human couple, oblivious to the world around them, were unceremoniously ushered out by a one-armed Noghri wearing a carnival employee's uniform. Sabine curtseyed at the ride's operator, the sarcasm not lost on her companions, and hopped into the basket with Ezra hot on her heels. The two in the next basket didn't wait to be yanked out. Hera and Kanan exchanged a grin and climbed in.

Although not especially fast (the point, apparently, was to be more of a leisure ride than anything to induce an adrenaline rush), the sheer size of the wheel set a tingling in Kanan's stomach that reminded him of the feeling he sometimes got when Hera decided to try some fancy piloting moves. Nothing he couldn't handle, though. Near the top, he could see clear across the city, even to the next one several hundred kilometers away. The steadily burning lights of homes, offices, and nightspots reminded him of Coruscant...back during more peaceful times.

A thump on his chest pulled him out of such thoughts before they could consume him again. Glancing at Hera, he saw her gesture towards the basket in front of them with the hand that had hit him. "Look at this," she said with a long-suffering smile. Kanan followed her gesture to see Sabine still clutching her plush, and Ezra attempting (unsuccessfully) to put his arm around her shoulders without her noticing. "Have you ever seen such an awkward kid?"

Kanan hmph'd. "I used to be that way when I was his age."

Hera laughed and leaned into his side. Only then did he notice how his arm was laying on the back of their basket, a more natural, casual echo of Ezra's efforts with Sabine. He started to remove the appendage in a sudden sense of self-consciousness, but Hera's hand on his wrist stopped him. "You're still as awkward as a teenager, idiot." She drew his arm more fully around her until his hand rested just over her chest, her head falling to his shoulder in the process. "But for the most part you hide it better."

Self-consciousness quickly forgotten, Kanan allowed himself to relax with a small smile. Although he'd never flaunted his affection for Hera in public, and she kept it confined to playful taunting, the relative privacy of the basket suspended high in the air made him feel a little more comfortable. It was a risky move, but once she had settled snugly against him, Kanan raised his hand to gently stroke over her forehead...up to the curve of one lek.

Hera shivered, and not because of the wind. "Kanan," she said lowly. "Right here?"

"Why not? It's about as private as we're gonna get anytime soon." Emboldened by her reaction to his touch and those words, he chanced a soft brush of his lips across the curve of the decorated lek closest to him, his fingertips still stroking the other.

Hera's body tensed as she drew in a sharp breath, her eyes fluttering closed. "I can always send the kids, Zeb, and Chopper on some errands when we get back to the _Ghost_." Her left hand landed on his thigh and gripped it when he pressed a firmer kiss into her sensitive flesh. "We are running low on protein bars."

Kanan's brow furrowed in confusion. "No, we're not. There's plenty in storage."

Hera turned to face him directly, and he started at the spark that had lit in those bluer-than-blue depths. "They don't know that, now do they."

Kanan grinned before cupping her jaw with his free hand. "Have I mentioned how much I like the way you think, Hera?"

She returned his grin with a promising smirk. "Not often enough, love."

Just like the pair that had occupied their basket on the ride before them, neither Kanan nor Hera needed any outside incentive to get off when they touched back down. Hera had gathered everyone together and asked Sabine and Ezra to go pick up a list of supplies. Ezra had agreed reluctantly (he wanted to stay at the carnival for a few more rides like the little adrenaline junkie he was), but Sabine had taken one look at her mentors and yanked Ezra away with a "let's go, squirt" and a knowing grin at Hera.

Once back at the ship, Kanan had asked Zeb to look after the kids, which prompted a raised brow and a simple, "why?"

"No telling what kind of trouble might follow them in a strange city," he'd lied, unconvincingly.

"So why didn't _you_ go with them if it's such a dangerous place?"

Kanan had struggled for an explanation when Hera had appeared behind him. "Because I need him here to fix that turret he broke in that last dogfight with TIEs. No way I'm doing it again when I didn't cause it."

He'd shot her a look (she really had to go there?), but Zeb had accepted it. Or at least pretended to. All that mattered was that he'd left the ship. As soon as he was out of sight, Hera pulled Kanan into her bunk with a searing kiss. "Wait wait wait," he said hurriedly. "What about Chopper?"

"Simple: I pulled his battery."

Kanan stared at her for a beat before laughing. "Oh yeah, I _definitely _like how you think."

Just to be on the safe side, Hera sealed her door as he lifted her against the wall. For their part, pilot and Jedi couldn't have been happier with the evening's outing.


End file.
